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Senior Engineering Manager – Backend (Selling Experience)Location: Toronto/San Jose
About the RoleWe are looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead a backend engineering team within the Selling Experience organization. This role is ideal for a highly technical leader who is passionate about building scalable systems, driving strong software design practices, and developing high-performing teams.
You will play a critical role in shaping backend architecture, guiding technical decisions, and ensuring the delivery of robust, high-quality systems that power seller-facing experiences. This is a hands-on leadership role that requires active participation in design and development alongside team leadership responsibilities.
What You’ll DoAI‑first. You treat agentic AI as a core design and operating lever, using it as a force multiplier for engineering productivity, reliability, and customer impact while setting clear guardrails for safety and ethics.
Generative leadership. You lead with outcomes over outputs, optimize flow (shorter lead times, limited WIP, fast feedback), create psychological safety for intelligent failure, invite rather than inflict change, and practice servant leadership with continuous experimentation and improvement.
Lead and support a team of 5–8 engineers focused on backend platform and service development.
Stay actively involved in system design and hands-on coding (primarily in Java/Kotlin, Node.js, or similar backend technologies).
Drive best practices in backend software design, including scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
Provide technical leadership through mentorship, code reviews, and architectural guidance.
Own and drive architectural decisions for distributed systems and backend services.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product, design, and partner teams to align on goals and execution.
Translate ambiguous requirements into clear technical strategies and actionable deliverables.
Foster a strong engineering culture centered on ownership, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
BS in Computer Science or equivalent technical degree.
12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in backend systems, including:
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
SOLID principles
Multithreaded systems
Designing and building distributed systems with strong understanding of consistency, durability, and availability trade-offs
Scalable API design (REST and service-oriented architectures)
Proven experience managing and mentoring engineers, building strong teams, and handling performance and growth with empathy and clarity.
Strong hands-on coding experience — this role requires active technical contribution.
Excellent knowledge of software design principles and backend architecture.
Experience working in Agile environments (Scrum, Kanban), including sprint planning and iterative delivery.
Proficiency with tools like Jira (or equivalent) for backlog management and delivery tracking.
Strong planning and prioritization skills, including breaking down complex initiatives into manageable tasks.
Ability to provide accurate estimations and balance delivery speed with technical quality.
Experience translating product requirements into technical designs and execution plans.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to proactively identify and mitigate risks and dependencies.
Experience with cloud-native architectures and infrastructure.
Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, and containerized deployments.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, and operational tooling.
Understanding of distributed system observability (logging, tracing, metrics).
Experience working on large-scale backend platforms or customer-facing systems.
Additional Details
This job posting relates to an existing vacancy within eBay.
eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [email protected]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility.
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